Deutscher Buchpreis: Welcome

Laura de Weck

Laura de Weck, born in 1981, is a playwright and literary critic. Her plays are performed internationally, and her dialogue-based columns for Tages-Anzeiger and Bund have been collected and published by Diogenes under the title “Politik und Liebe machen”. In 2018, she joined the critics’ round of the “Literaturclub” programme on Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen and 3Sat. Since 2023, she has alternated with Jennifer Khakshouri as the host of “Literaturclub”. She has been a member of the jury for the Ingeborg-Bachmann-Prize since 2024.

Maria Carolina Foi

Maria Carolina Foi is professor of modern German literature at the University of Trieste and has held scholarships from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the Austrian Ministry of Culture and the Humboldt Foundation. She is also an external senior fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies. From 2020 to 2024, she served as director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Berlin. Her work focuses on literature and political philosophy, Viennese modernism, and German-Italian cultural transfer.

Jürgen Kaube

Jürgen Kaube, born in Worms on 19 June 1962, initially studied philosophy, German language and literature, and art history, and later economics at the Free University of Berlin. Since 1992, he has been a regular contributor to the literature and arts section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, joining the editorial team in 1999 as Berlin correspondent. Since September 2000, he has been based in Frankfurt, where he was responsible for science and education policy. In August 2008, he became head of the humanities section, and in 2012, head of new non-fiction and deputy head of the literature and arts section. He has been editor-in-chief of the F.A.Z. since 1 January 2015.

Friedhelm Marx

Friedhelm Marx, born in 1963, studied German language and literature in Tübingen, Charlottesville (U.S.A.) and Bonn. Since 2004, he has held the chair of modern German literature at the University of Bamberg, where he also organises the Bamberg Poetry Professorship. Additionally, he is the editor of the “Literatur & Gegenwart” series published by Königshausen & Neumann. He has been vice-president of the German Thomas Mann Society since 2006 and was a fellow at the Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades during the summer of 2021. He is a member of numerous literary juries and conducts research on Thomas Mann, the Weimar Republic, discourses on Europe, and contemporary literature.

Kathrin Matern

Kathrin Matern, born in the Uckermark in 1975, is a trained journalist, filmmaker and moderator. After completing a traineeship at Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg, she worked as an editor in the political editorial department. She then spent 15 years as a filmmaker at Norddeutscher Rundfunk, specialising in contemporary history and literature. In 2021, she became a bookseller and since February 2024, she has been running her own bookshop “Frau Rilke” in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg. She also moderates literature events and dialogue formats.

Lara Sielmann

Lara Sielmann is a cultural journalist, literary critic and curator. She works as a freelance literary editor and author for Deutschlandfunk Kultur and regularly moderates readings and panel discussions. She serves as a juror for various literary prizes, including the Deutscher Übersetzer*innenfonds translators’ fund and the 2025 Alfred Döblin Prize. She is also a guest lecturer in the master’s programme “Applied Literary Studies – Contemporary Literature” at the Free University of Berlin. She lives in Berlin.

Shirin Sojitrawalla

Shirin Sojitrawalla studied German language and literature, comparative literature and political science before completing an editorial traineeship at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Since 2000, she has worked as a freelance cultural journalist and presenter, focusing on literature and theatre for various media outlets, including taz, Deutschlandfunk, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Theater der Zeit, nachtkritik.de, Frankfurter Hefte and others. From 2021 to 2024, she served as a member of the jury for the Leipzig Book Fair Prize.